Candy M. Soronnadi – Administrative Assistant

A pleasant day to you – my name is Candy… born and raised in the highly urbanised city of Davao.

I was a typical good student; always in the top 10 of my class up to high school. I then took up Bachelor of Science in Information Technology in college. Struggling to survive the pioneering course in the university, I learned a lot of things about how to manage time, handle pressure, and most of all, how to be more confident in preparation for life after I finished school.

The struggles at school can never be compared to the trials and challenges in the real world. Applying for a job is more difficult than submitting a thesis at the last minute of a deadline. I was able to work as a contractual employee in our city government but that did not last long, as I grabbed an opportunity to apply for a position with the first BPO Company here in Davao. Fortunately I was accepted as an agent for technical support.

Over the years of job hunting, I was already performing freelance work with my friend who taught me how to enter into the world of online freelancing. He was doing the programming and back-end tasks, while I worked more on the front end as a content worker. I never really had the talent and skill to be a computer programmer. But my heart and mind was somewhere else… I really wanted to work and explore the world outside of my city.

I was 24 years old when I first stepped inside the international airport, flying to Mainland China via Hong Kong. The challenges of living and working abroad is 50 times that of when I was just starting to find a job and surviving daily life with my family by my side!

While in China, I was alone, in an unknown environment of which 99% of the people around me could not speak my language, and 95% of them cannot even speak the English language at all.

I met some people who taught me different lessons in life. I met some brilliant friends who struggled with me through thick and thin. I also met some people that took advantage of me and hurt me so much that even I, myself, cannot comprehend why those people can do such things to their own countrymen. Yes – countrymen, the people that deceived me abroad were from my own homeland. And it is one of the many lessons that workers abroad should be warned about.

Fortunately, I had a successful career back then. I was a personal assistant for a foreign businessman and after 5 years of working for him, we fell in love and married. We decided to leave Mainland China because of the strict laws, and we felt that we could no longer afford to risk ourselves and our business.

The perks of working abroad are the opportunities to roam around and enjoy the culture, food, scenic spots, and experience the different traditions a country has to offer. I was able to meet different kinds of people from different cultures as well. There are more foreign people in China than anybody can imagine! The cities where businesses and manufacturing of different products is thriving, is filled with foreigners.

At the moment, I am still married to my previous boss – which sounds funny, event to me, but that’s what actually happened. 🙂 We have a 3-year old son and plan to have possibly 1 more child in the future. Our business did not prove to be sustainable here in the Philippines, and both of us are looking to find other ways to get back on our feet and support the daily needs of our family.

With good experience in different types of jobs and meeting different types of people, I have developed strategies on how to deal with diverse situations and issues – whether it be a life scenario or work. All those previous difficulties that I experienced made me a stronger and more mature individual. People would call trials “suffering”, but I call such adversity an “adventure”.

I was once a carefree person but now my focus is to find ways to help my family live and survive the present and the future. If you choose me to be part of your company’s team as a Virtual Assistant, you will never need to find a more flexible and adept worker.

For a copy of Candy’s resume please click here.